“Things are a mess!” is not a pain point

Image: black hole of books and papers

Probably the most common thing I hear from clients is: “Our [Sharepoint, OneDrive, repository] is a mess!”

“A mess” is painful - but it’s not a pain point.

I have clients take me on a trip down their knowledge management pain tunnel, noting:

• What is the mess?

• What do you need to find in this mess?

• Who needs to find it?

You might think that knowledge management is a huge undertaking. That everything has to be accounted for and organized and revamped.

Nope, I actually don’t recommend this approach.

Strategic knowledge management starts with people - my first step is to find out who they are and what they need. Then the pain points start to emerge (hint: pain points don’t always have to do with actual knowledge management). From there, I help set up systems and techniques that make the big mess more of a “functional mess”.

p.s. If you want to read more about messes, take a look at Abby Covert’s book, How to Make Sense of Any Mess.